In advanced civilizations the period loosely called Alexandrian is usually associated with flexible morals, perfunctory religion, populist standards and cosmopolitan tastes, feminism, exotic cults, and the rapid turnover of high and low fads—in short, a falling away (which is all that decadence means) from the strictness of traditional rules, embodied in character and inforced from within. — Jacques Barzun

Finally: Polled by the AP

“This is a short survey…” This is a lie. I was on the phone for 15 minutes.

Two questions were obviously biased (and we all know in which direction): (1) “Do you approve of President Obama’s decision to withdraw most US troops from Iraq by August 2010?” To which I replied, “That wasn’t his decision. George Bush agreed to that in negotiations with the Iraqi government before Barack Obama was elected.” This was met with the standard “Does not compute” response, so I told the surveyor that I declined to answer.

(2) “What should the Democrats do if they can’t get Republicans to support health care legislation: pass the legislation without the Republicans, or continue trying to work on the legislation?” I was incredulous that the obvious third option wasn’t one of the acceptable answers: Democrats should resign en masse (either voluntarily or via the ballot box.) So I declined to answer.

I took great pleasure in telling her that I strongly approved of Dick Cheney. When asked if I strongly or somewhat disapproved of Nancy Pelosi (after the generic “approve or disapprove”) I got testy and asked why they didn’t have anything more vehement than “strongly.”